Crime reporting, like just about anything else, runs to a cycle. Normally it goes like this: Crime, outrage, arrest, conviction then justice.
The alternative is crime, outrage, mystery, no arrest then sadness. Throw in acquittals, anger at soft sentences and the occasional racial stereotype and you have all bases covered.
![Fellow Pentridge prisoner and cell-mate Alex Tsakmakis was sentenced to 10 years jail for manslaughter after dousing ...](/web/20170502160524im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/v/t/f/h/e/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gvtpdz.png/1493390376693.jpg)
Usually it is the crime that grabs the attention, but there are some criminals who are page one news. If the underworld had their own Logies, then crooks like Carl Williams, Tony Mokbel and Judy Moran would be Hall of (in)-Famers.
That is when they are on the outside, but once behind bars, for all intents and purposes they become just another inmate in orange underwear. (In fact the prison colour code is thus: green overalls for mainstream inmates and red for high risk so they stand out. Underwear can be any colour although it would be wise to steer away from skimpy leopard-skin varieties.)
![Alekos Tsaikmakis, charged with the murder of Barry Quinn.](/web/20170502160524im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/v/t/f/g/s/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gvtpdz.png/1493390376693.jpg)
While the prison system tries to strip away individual's notoriety, not all crooks are considered equal. While most of the 6000-odd inmates keep low profiles, hoping to get out as soon as possible, there are others who are treated as gangster royalty by using one of three prison currencies; money, drugs and brute force.
Money
Take drug boss Tony Mokbel. When in 2001 he was remanded in custody on drug trafficking charges, he was already a millionaire with a reputation for being generous to friends and associates.
This meant when inside he was treated as a VIP (very important prisoner) because many of his fellow inmates hoped Tony might employ them on the outside. One such fellow was The Runner ā a hitman turned star prosecution witness.
In his own words, from his police statement: "Tony Mokbel came into the unit [at Port Phillip prison] when he was on remand for drug charges. I hadn't had any dealing with Tony before he came into the unit. After a period of time Tony became part of our crew, we used to eat together and occasionally drink alcohol. [It is unclear whether this was a robust red or an unwooded chardonnay.]
![Mark 'Chopper' Read.](/web/20170502160524im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/v/t/f/e/e/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gvtpdz.png/1493390376693.jpg)
"I was working in the kitchen at the time and used to smuggle food out for Tony as he loved his food. While I was working in the kitchen I was smuggling drugs and alcohol and other paraphernalia including mobile telephones and guns via one of the staff members.
"Over this time Tony and I became friends. I also managed to smuggle in a mobile telephone for him whilst in Penhyn Unit. The mobile was later found by guards outside the Penhyn Unit near the cell windows. Tony told me later that he had thrown the phone out the window as he heard the guards were going to do a search."
![Mark 'Chopper' Read, criminal-turned-author. Photo: Jon Reid](/web/20170502160524im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/v/t/f/d/s/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gvtpdz.png/1493390376693.jpg)
Years later when Mokbel returned to prison, his $400 million drug trafficking business dismantled and his assets seized, he was no longer an underworld employer. Now he is just another long-term inmate likely to die in custody.
Drugs
When Peter John Allen was sentenced to a long prison stint for drug trafficking, he saw it more as a business opportunity than punishment as he now had a truly captive client base.
As a criminal Johnson is a failure as from an early age he tended to be caught ā his criminal record shows 159 convictions over 20 years.
He built a network using a corrupt prison officer, three female couriers, five TAB accounts and his half brother, the notorious Victor George Pierce, as his banker and drug buyer. They supplied inmates with drugs including heroin, amphetamines, Rohypnol and cannabis.
Allen managed to take control of Pentridge's F division laundry telephone and would spend half his shift on the blower.
![Victor Pierce's daughter Katie with her mother Wendy, holding a picture of her murdered husband.](/web/20170502160524im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/v/u/2/k/h/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gvtpdz.png/1493390376693.jpg)
Police recorded 1760 calls from the laundry as the brothers trafficked drugs in three Victorian jails. No wonder some crooks had to pull jobs when they got out of jail to pay the drug debts they accrued on the inside.
Brute force
Then there are the heavies. The crooks who standover other crooks inside prison, and today there are none more intimidating than Matthew "The General" Johnson, the head of the exclusively white Prisoner of War gang.
![CCTV footage shown in court of Carl Williams' killing in prison.](/web/20170502160524im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/v/t/f/a/b/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gvtpdz.png/1493390376693.jpg)
As a criminal, Johnson is a failure as from an early age he tended to be caught ā his criminal record shows 159 convictions over 20 years.
In one of his many court appearances, Judge Geoffrey Chettle said, "Your extensive criminal history, together with your [offending conduct], demonstrate you to be a career criminal who is a real menace to society. You have not been specifically deterred by prior jail sentences, your prospects for rehabilitation must be seen as effectively nil."
![Matthew Johnson ā the man who killed Carl Williams with the metal stem of an exercise bike.](/web/20170502160524im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/u/d/p/v/z/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gvtpdz.png/1493390376693.jpg)
It was one of the few charges where he was acquitted that shows Johnson's mindset. In May 2007 he was searched by police at the Glen Iris railway station car park, and they didn't need to don the rubber gloves as a nine-millimetre Luger semi-automatic pistol promptly fell from his trousers.
Forensic tests quickly confirmed the gun was used to kill Johnson's associate Bryan ConyersĀ in a Berwick garage, before his body was mutilated, covered in petrol and set on fire.
![Police interview Matthew Johnson after the murder of Carl Williams.](/web/20170502160524im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/v/t/f/9/9/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gvtpdz.png/1493460891120.jpg)
Homicide squad detectives quickly noticed Johnson's eyebrows were singed ā hardly the hallmark of a master criminal. The prosecution claimed Conyers, 18, was killed after he kept $50 Johnson gave him to buy marijuana.
![Scans of Matthew Johnson's poems](/web/20170502160524im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/v/s/u/e/8/image.related.articleLeadNarrow.300x0.gvtpdz.png/1493390376693.jpg)
Johnson claimed an associate was the killer and after a 27-hour deliberation the jury found him not guilty.
First sent to an adult prison at 18, Johnson quickly learnt attack was the best form of defence. Always physically imposing, hundreds of hours with jail weights made him massive, ruthless and dominant. Intelligent, articulate and charismatic but "totally institutionalised", prison is now his domain where he has been linked to 60 assaults.
![Scans of Matthew Johnson's poems](/web/20170502160524im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/v/s/u/e/e/image.related.articleLeadNarrow.300x0.gvtpdz.png/1493390376693.jpg)
While for years he was a feared figure inside prison he was little known outside ā that is until in 2010 he took the stem of an exercise bike to the head of drug dealer-turned killer-turned police informer Carl Williams.
Johnson used the traditional jail excuse for the killing ā self defence. The trouble was the whole premeditated killing was recorded on security cameras.
![Scans of Matthew Johnson's poems](/web/20170502160524im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/v/t/f/4/a/image.related.articleLeadNarrow.300x0.gvtpdz.png/1493390376693.jpg)
Johnson gave evidence he was told Williams planned to kill him and got in first ā clearly nonsense as Carl was talking to police in the hope of reducing his sentence.
Almost certainly Johnson did the killing for drug trafficker Rocco Arico, who wanted to silence Williams before he could implicate him in a gangland murder. The underworld rumour is someone close to Johnson was awarded a lucrative contract in Arico's "property development" business. (Sadly for Rocco, about $10 million worth of those developments have been frozen as assets of crime.)
All very interesting but the disturbing part of the story is Johnson's POW gang is starting to flex its substantial muscle on the outside. And bikie gangs such as the Hells Angels, Comancheros, Mongols and Bandidos are recruiting from various jail gangs to increase their influence inside prisons and to have a fresh source of muscle when inmates are released.
What is known is two POWs, acting on Johnson's instructions, attempted to target Williams' former wife Roberta and father George. In 2015, just days after their release, gang members Sam Liszczak and Rod PhillipsĀ sourced a gun, stole a car and firebombed several houses.
Then, when they had ample opportunity to escape, they wounded pursuing policeman Ben Ashmole with a shotgun blast.
Now the Purana taskforce is investigating reports Roberta is under threat ā with Johnson demanding she swear (and she is an excellent swearer) that Williams confided he planned to kill the General.
Once prison gangs were like sharks, only deadly in their own domain, but increasingly they are encroaching into the mainstream.
One Middle Eastern crook organised major burglaries and armed robberies from the inside and police remain concerned at the influence a convicted terrorist exerts in custody.
In the jails today we have about 70 POW members, their feeder group of younger crooks, Menace to Society, Asian and Muslim gangs, and the Pacific Island/Maori gang,Kill Your Rivals (which feeds into the Hells Angels).
They are constantly moved within prisons to avoid festering feuds. Members and sympathisers inside and outside jail communicate through visits, letters and social media.
All closed groups have codes. At the Melbourne Club it is frowned upon to drink merlot with baked halibut. In the POWs you get stabbed for speaking to police.
Being a prison heavy comes at a cost. Convicted double murderer Barry Robert Quinn made the mistake of telling a bad joke at the expense of businessman-turned-killer Alex Tsakmakis (a man with no discernible sense of humour). Alex responded the next day by squirting Quinn with modelling glue and setting him on fire, causing fatal injuries. A bogus death notice in the paper under Tsakmakis' name said, "Sorry, we always stuck together".
Tsakmakis was later stabbed by Mark Brandon "Chopper" Read (while reading TheĀ Australian Financial Review) and finally murdered by Russell Street bomber Craig Minogue. Read was set up and stabbed by a team that included Greg "Bluey" Brazel.
Finally Brazel, a triple killer with 78 convictions, was bashed by Johnson.
There lies the vicious cycle of prison life. At 43, with devoted followers, the General remains an imposing figure who can order stabbings inside prison and bombings outside. But he will be 70 by the time he can apply for parole and eventually someone will come looking for his crown.